Part 17 (1/2)
Now arose the trouble that Spite had antic.i.p.ated.
”Where is the Captain?” The word ran from mouth to mouth along barricades and breastwork. The Captain was not to be found.
”Where is the Lieutenant, then?” The inquiry ran through the Tegenaria quarter with the same puzzling result. Presently a sentinel who had mounted guard near the abutment of the old suspension bridge reported that he had seen the two officers climb the pier and go out upon the cables.
”Have they returned?”
No he had seen nothing of them since.
A rumor was started, and ran through the lines, that Spite had been captured by the Brownies, and that had caused the unusual excitement in their camp.
Then came another rumor that made headway amid whispers, hints, and mutterings of ”Treachery!” ”Cowardice!” ”Desertion!” ”Sold out to the Brownies!”
So the leaven of riot and panic began to work. Some bewailed the missing officers as martyrs; some cursed them as traitors; all mourned their absence as a fatal blow to their own safety. Irritated by the uncertainty, worn out by watching, fasting and fighting, the two parties readily pa.s.sed from words to blows.
”They are true as steel!”
”They are false traitors!”
”You lie!”
”Hah! take that!”
Words like these, followed by the clatter of claws, and the sharp rasping of fangs were heard in every quarter. Luckily the third in command, Lieutenant Heady, was no milksop. He had seen riots and rebellions before and had quelled them. In stubbornness, cunning and ferocity he was a genuine Pixie. Fortune, it seemed, had made him chief, for the time, at least. And chief he would be, or cease to be at all.
He summoned a squad of the most courageous guards, and with them pa.s.sed along the line of barricades. Quarrels were broken up with a strong hand, both parties being impartially beaten. The seditious were warned, the orderly praised, the doubters cheered, the timorous encouraged.
That answered for a little while.
Once more the riot began.
Heady and his patrol renewed their round. But as soon as a tumult was silenced in one quarter it arose in another. No sooner had the police squad reduced matters to quiet and moved to another point, than the riot broke out afresh behind them. Finally it gathered such headway that the Lieutenant was compelled to retire. The ill feelings which the rioters had vented upon one another were turned against him. The combatants united to wreak a common vengeance upon Heady.
”He is a usurper!”
”He wants to be chief himself!”
”He has made way with the other officers so that he may seize the command!”
”Down with him! Death to the tyrant!”
”Death! Death! Death!”
The whole seditious element of the garrison gathered together, and moved in a solid ma.s.s upon Heady and his little band of aids, who had fallen back toward the tower that united the two main quarters of the fort.
”Aha!” said he, ”is it that you are after? Very good, my brave boys!
There are two who can play the game of death, as you shall learn!”
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 56.--Lieut. Heady and the Pixie Parson Among Admiring Pixinees.]
The Pixinees had a.s.sembled upon the rampart and were looking down grimly upon the tumult in the parade ground or open s.p.a.ce beneath. Heady called to them to open the tower gates. Now, strange to say, Heady was a universal favorite among the Pixinees. Which one of his particular qualities won their admiration it would be hard to say, but the cross-grained and savage old crumdudgeon had a host of enthusiastic friends among the Pixinees of Fort Spinder. They always stood up for him, and the cunning fellow knew well that he could count upon them now; especially as the Pixie Parson,[AG] who had great influence among the Pixinees, was also his warm friend.